A Man Without a Country Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 3, "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing" Summary

Chapter 3, "Here is a Lesson in Creative Writing" Summary

Vonnegut begins this chapter in his conventional humorous form, giving good advice on why one should never use semi-colons in writing. He calls them, "transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing." This is the first simple lesson before a sidebar of advice describing going into arts as the perfect way to disappoint your parents. After a humorous paragraph on this matter, which also describes why it is a good idea to go into the arts anyway, he continues to describe a more structured possible study of literature.

Vonnegut introduces the idea of bell curves from his science degrees. By using bell curves, he describes some of the most basic story-telling structures, the basic themes that make up all stories, and shows how they look on his graphs. The first describes the basic "boy meets girl" story line and shows a character that starts well, hits conflict and hard times, gets girl and...
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